During

centuriation Centuriation (in Latin ''centuriatio'' or, more usually, ''limitatio''), also known as Roman grid, was a method of land measurement used by the Romans. In many cases land divisions based on the survey formed a field system, often referred to in m ...

(

Ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

land

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...

), centuria was a basic unit of area, representing a square of 20 actus (710 meters, 2400

Roman feet The units of measurement of ancient Rome were generally consistent and well documented. Length The basic unit of Roman linear measurement was the ''pes'' (plural: ''pedes'') or Roman foot. Investigation of its relation to the English foot goes ...

) on a side (an area of about 50

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s). The name derives from the fact that in new

colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

each centuria can be subdivided into 100 lots of heredium size (equal to two jugera each, or about 0.5 hectare) that were typically allocated to 100 families of colonists. Although the "normal" size of centuria (20x20 actus = 200 jugera) was dominant, the contemporary Roman sources as well as modern archeological results suggest that centuria varied in size from 50 to 400 jugera, with some subdivisions using non-square plots. Written sources describe centuria as large as 80x16 actus = 640 jugera in Luceria, although Flach considers this record "not credible". Despite the Roman foot definitions varying by time and geography, the surviving centuriation divisions are consistent, with normal size centuria side measurements from 703 meters in

Chott el Djerid Chott el Djerid ( ') also spelled ''Sciott Gerid'' and ''Shott el Jerid'', is a chott, a large endorheic salt lake in southern Tunisia. The name can be translated from the Arabic into English as "Lagoon of the Land of Palms". Geography The bottom ...

to 711 meters in Emilia. Centuria was too big for town planning, so smaller units were used for laying out the insula (city blocks): either actus or varying ones (usually rounded to the next passus, 5 feet, or pertica, 10 feet).

References

Sources

* * * * {{Roman-stub Ancient Roman units of measurement